August 2012, Vol. 2 - Seeing at the Nanoscale 2012

Seeing at the Nanoscale 2012 was held jointly by Bruker Nano Surfaces and the University of Bristol, Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information, and was chaired by Prof Mervyn Miles and co-chairman Prof. Heinrich Hörber. One of the conference highlights was the keynote speech, "High-speed Atomic Force Microscopy for Filming Biological Dynamics," by Toshio Ando of Kanazawa University, Japan.

As in previous years, the 10th anniversary of this conference featured world-renown SPM leaders as invited speakers who presented throughout the conference and interacted with researchers in animated discussions on new ideas and innovations. Invited speakers included Yves Dufrêne (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Simon Scheuring (INSERM/University of Marseille, France), Jean-Luc Pellequer (CEA Marcoule, France), Evangelos Eleftheriou (IBM Research, Switzerland), David Fermin (University of Bristol, UK), Markus Raschke (University of Colorado, USA), Franz J. Giessibl (University of Regensburg, Germany), Rainer Hillenbrand (CIC nanoGUNE, Spain), Georg Schitter (Vienna University of Technology, Austria), Julius Vancso (University of Twente, NL), Jamie Hobbs (University of Sheffield, UK), Thilo Glatzel (University of Basel, Switzerland).

The three-day program featured strong technical presentations and posters on topics ranging from biological applications and nanomaterials to energy and instrument development. In conjunction with the conference, Bruker hosted three very popular half-day tutorials covering a variety of atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques and featuring the newest capabilities of the Dimension FastScan™, BioScope Catalyst™, and MultiMode® 8 AFMs. The tutorials covered topics ranging from how to overcome challenges of electrical characterization and performing mechano-biology to how force spectroscopy and mechanical mapping help understanding of cell and Fast scanning AFM toward bio applications.

Seeing at the Nanoscale continues to grow year after year. This year's event had 180 attendees from 27 countries in addition to Bruker staff and 12 members of the press. We also had record participation with 151 abstracts submitted from 35 countries.

In addition to the program and accomplished speakers and attendees, the venue of Bristol's Willis Memorial Building provided a great atmosphere for the event with its giant archways, magnificent stained glass windows, and storied hardwood and granite rooms. Overall, the show was a huge success with attendees giving a 95.6% rating for the conference, referring to their experience as either good or great in a follow-up survey.

With such great speakers, interaction and heated discussion we are already looking forward to next year's Seeing at the Nanoscale events. Be sure to check the Bruker web site for details soon.